<\/p>\n
Dallas Cowboys safety Caleb Downs (13) participates in a minicamp practice at The Star on Wednesday, June 17, 2026, in Frisco.<\/p>\n
Smiley N. Pool\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
OXNARD, Calif. \u2014 The secondary is the last line of defense, clearly not solely responsible for\u00a0the Cowboys\u2019 defensive crash and burn of 2025<\/a> but a unit that played a significant part. If there\u2019s anything that looks strikingly different about the Cowboys of 2026, it is the secondary, particularly the safeties who should represent Dallas\u2019 biggest roster upgrade for the season.<\/p>\n In the Cowboys\u2019 second camp workout, rookie Caleb Downs<\/a> was seen fielding punts, playing slot corner and working at starting strong safety as well.<\/p>\n Does the first-round pick from Ohio State by way of Alabama have anything else up his sleeves?<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m willing to learn whatever it is, so if there\u2019s more to learn, I\u2019m there for it,\u2019\u2019 Downs said.<\/p>\n Downs will be learning from new coordinator Christian Parker<\/a> and alongside veteran safety\u00a0Jalen Thompson<\/a> who, somewhat amazingly, just turned 28 even though this is his eighth NFL season. A starter for the Cardinals the last five seasons, Thompson was the club\u2019s biggest swing in free agency, signing a three-year $33 million deal<\/a> to basically run the show from his free safety spot.<\/p>\n I sometimes wonder about how the NFL does things backward from most \u2014 its free-agency period starts six weeks before the college draft \u2014 and, in this case, whether the Cowboys would have pursued Thompson as vigorously had they known Downs was on the way. I believe the answer to be yes because the almost wholesale changes to the secondary were mandated by a season in which the Cowboys led the league going the wrong way in too many categories.<\/p>\n Most points allowed \u2014 30.1 per game.<\/p>\n Most passing yards allowed \u2014 251.5 per game.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Most possessions scored upon \u2014 51.4%.<\/p>\n We have talked at length about\u00a0Dak Prescott\u2019s 2023 season when he finished second in the MVP voting behind Baltimore\u2019s Lamar Jackson with a 36-9 touchdowns-to-interceptions ratio. Cowboys\u2019 opponents last year put up an MVP-worthy 35-6 ratio against this defense, and it didn\u2019t seem to matter whether the quarterback was New York\u2019s Russell Wilson (in his next to last NFL start) or Arizona\u2019s Jacoby Brissett or Jaxson Dart throwing to backup Giants\u2019 receivers.<\/p>\n They all lit up the Cowboys.<\/p>\n Dallas\u2019 attempt to right the ship starts with the hiring of Parker and eight other new defensive coaches. It includes a shift in design to a 3-4 defense. It features\u00a0Rashan Gary rushing the passer from one outside linebacker spot. But most of all there is change in the secondary where cornerbacks Trevon Diggs and Kaiir Elam and safety Donovan Wilson (they combined for 27 starts) are gone. Safety Malik Hooker and nickel corner Reddy Steward remain but are slotted into backup roles. DaRon Bland hopes to be a new, healthier player and there\u2019s no question that will be the case for last year\u2019s rookie corner Shavon Revel, who has shed the leg brace he had to wear following torn ACL surgery.<\/p>\n And then there\u2019s Thompson at the back end, and that\u2019s what makes head coach Brian\u00a0Schottenheimer smile the most.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cJalen Thompson\u2019s play, it jumps off the film,\u2019\u2019 Schottenheimer said. \u201cI think JT is in Year 8, and when your best players practice that way, that\u2019s usually the standard for success because all the young guys are still trying to figure it out. They see that, they replicate it.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a play that Caleb got beat on in the spring, I showed it to the team where\u00a0CeeDee got him on a little maneuver route. The same play came up yesterday and Caleb gloved it. That\u2019s to the point I\u2019ve made about Caleb, he does not repeat mistakes.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n Now, admittedly, it doesn\u2019t require much to get this head coach worked up talking about his players or expressing optimism about the future. So while he was going over all these pluses that he sees in the early workouts, Schottenheimer was asked (wisely, not by me) if he was excited about his defense at this time last summer.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m always excited,\u2019\u2019 he said, pondering the trap he had just stepped into. \u201cWhen you think back on it, the defense obviously took the brunt of the criticism. I put myself right at the top of that as head coach. But I think I\u2019m excited because of how hard these guys are working, all the changes that we\u2019ve made, you know.<\/p>\n \u201cBut we haven\u2019t done anything yet. And we need to do it.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n That will take time. The first preseason game is two weeks off and the season opener is six weeks away in New York. Opening with the last place team in the NFC East should be something of a break, but the Giants\u2019 receivers ate the Cowboys secondary for lunch twice last year \u2014 losing in overtime at Dallas, winning comfortably in the season-ender \u2014 and it didn\u2019t matter who was healthy for New York.<\/p>\n Still, it seems reasonable to think this defense is going to make strides forward. A sizable jump? A big leap? We don\u2019t know that. That\u2019s on Parker and, as the last ones on the field to have a say at stopping big plays, it\u2019s on an enthusiastic veteran from Arizona and a hybrid rookie who\u2019s already played and learned from some of the best with the Crimson Tide and Buckeyes.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like making things \u2018same as same as\u2019 is the key,\u2019\u2019 Downs said. \u201cI played for Kevin Steele on Coach\u00a0Saban\u2019s staff, I played for Jim Knowles and Matt Patricia at Ohio State. I have a lot of defensive knowledge and that allows me to play faster out there.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
The Cowboys are ready to see what Downs can do \u2026 all over the field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys safety Caleb Downs (13) participates in a minicamp practice at The Star on Wednesday, June 17,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2353,102,104,103],"class_list":["post-394469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-commentary","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}